


I know what I have to do

by orphan_account



Category: Avengers:Endgame - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Tony Stark - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Avengers Endgame 2014 Alternate Timeline, Complete, Gen, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, One-Shot, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Iron Man 3, Pre captain marvel, Pre-Age of Ultron Tony Stark, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21695428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A one-shot taking place during the Alternate Timeline of 2014 created in Avengers Endgame. Tony is working in his laboratory, obsessed with protecting the earth when a mysterious visitor interrupts him.
Relationships: Carol Danvers & Tony Stark
Kudos: 28





	I know what I have to do

**Author's Note:**

> Thanos created an alternate timeline when he travelled to the future, disappearing in 2104. This story takes place in that timeline, before the Avengers capture the Scepter in Age of Ultron. I might make a series of this, haven't decided yet.

Tony wandered alone through the silent Tower, his footsteps reverberating through the vacant rooms. He understood why he was here, even if he didn't want to accept it. Part of him wanted to go back Pepper in LA, but not yet. He should have remained at home with her, but that thing that refused to leave brought him back to this place again.

Steve and Natasha were in the field with their new partner, Sam Wilson. The man was one of the few trained to use the experimental EXO-Falcon harness and he asked Tony to replicate it and he complied, upgrading it and even creating a companion drone. The work amused him, and kept him busy for a while, but that didn't satisfy that dark 'thing' inside him and it didn't help that he was alone. Bruce lived here in the Tower on and off, and when he was here, he listened, but now was somewhere off on his own. 

The hallucinations and dreams weren't as acute as they had been, but they still popped back up again, still unsettling him to the core. The members of the team trusted him, they recognized his fear, but he was the only one in any position to do anything about it. His mind would not sleep and that thing would take hold, the theories of building the perfect suit of armor to defend the world would flare up again. Tony determined he could do it, make it better. 

He strolled over to his laboratory. The lights came on, and the computers pulled up a hologram of Ultron. He stared at it for a long time, like he always did when he came here. Close, so close.

A brilliant ball of light emerged in the heart of his holograms. Something not his. A security breach? He could do nothing as the light expanded and contorted, assembling into the figure of a young woman. She appeared to be human, and harmless but there was something odd about her. She was wearing a curious uniform. His heart, so recently freed from the shrapnel, pounded in his ears. It was happening...

"Jarvis! Security protocols!" He said, but with that his own holograms fizzed, leaving just her.

"Earth is further advanced than I realized," she declared, in English. "Wise of you to keep your technology hidden away like this. Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you, I couldn't if I wanted to." The image shimmered, allowing him to see she was a hologram. Then she smiled, catching him off guard but he remained wary.

"I'm not interested in harming you, or yours, I'm here for information," she continued. Her voice was soft, as if she was speaking to a child.

"What are you?" Tony asked. “And what could information could you possibly want from me?” There had to be a way to defend himself. Could she infect his system? Damn it, he should have tried harder! 

"I am Kree, and as you can see, much like yourself. We normally wouldn't make contact like this, but we recognize you have knowledge of what's out here."

"I know exactly what's out there! Why are you here?" Tony persisted.

"I told you, it's about information." She lifted a hand and an image of the tesseract appeared. 

"The Tesseract!" Tony exclaimed. "You'd be better off talking to our buddy Thor, he's the authority. Why do you…?"

"Your buddy, Thor?" She asked, amusement in her tone. "You have some rather interesting friends, protecting your world. You are fortunate."

"Do you want it?" Tony asked as abruptly as possible. "It's not here, I assume he took it back to Asgard."

The Kree woman looked off to the side as if looking for direction, then returned her gaze back toward him.

"You posses no knowledge of any other stones like it on your world?" she asked.

"Well, there's the thing in the scepter. Mind Stone. Shield took it. I'm not sure what they did with it."

"And that is all you know?" She asked. 

“They don't confide in me unless they want something. What's this about? Why the interest in a bunch of space rocks?"

"We are looking for someone who is searching for them and he must not find them. A criminal. Someone who has blazed a trail of death in destruction across space in a bizarre quest to bring his version of order to the universe, using those stones," she said. 

"That... doesn't sound at all frightening, but I knew something like that would happen. Where is he?"

"That's just it," she said. "That's the mystery. We've tracked across many systems, but suddenly he just disappeared." Her manner was conciliatory, not at all he imagined space creatures would act. He had to be careful. He was feeling comfortable in her presence. 

"Disappeared? He's here?" Tony asked. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and a chill filled the room. He felt himself shake but forced himself to focus. The woman smiled at him, the way a mother would smile at a curious child. 

"We looked. He's nowhere within your system, or any system close to you. He doesn't appear to exist anywhere. It is extraordinary, he was so preoccupied with his mission that nothing could sway him away from it. He has many enemies, but so far no one has claimed to have killed him, and if they had, we would know. Some suspect he has concealed himself away to lull us into a false sense of security and then strike, but secrecy is not his way. He enjoys making a spectacle everywhere he goes."

"That won't happen on my watch. A false sense of security I mean. I don't think I'll ever feel secure again, but my tech is specific and I've spent all my energy over the last year on this one thing. If there were space psychopaths hiding around here, and I would have found out."

"We found your sensors," she replied. "That's why we came to you." She waved her hand, and an image of an enormous, ugly humanoid appeared beside her. "This is him, this is Thanos." Tony's heart pounded faster. The... beast was horrifying. 

"Well, thank you for adding to my many nightmares," Tony said. 

"I'm sorry, but we felt obliged to inform you. We want you to know how serious this is, and how important it is for us to find him."

"I've been trying to work something out, to defend against anything from out there, again and again... but things keep going... wrong."

"It's only logical that you would want to secure your world," she said, dropping her tone which added kindness to her tone. Tony was half convinced she was human. "That's why I'm leaving you with this." Another wave of the hand and an equation appeared beside her. ¨An upgrade to your…. tech. An alert. It will forewarn you if he appears in your system, and it will signal us. It's the least we can do, and if he still survives, we must find him, but for myself, I suspect he left, either of his own free will, or something lured him away."

"Why do you think that?"

"I traveled to the place where he was last encountered. There was a substantial fluctuation in the space-time readings. Our scientists believe an anomaly sucked him away from our reality, possibly even to another timeline. Do you understand such things?"

"Theoretically, yes. Lucky for us," Tony said. "But I know there's more going on out there that just him…"

"There are other threats, true, but so far, they've ignored you. We wish to help, even though I am almost certain something, or someone took him away, but don't let down your guard, remain vigilant, and protect the stone." With that, she and the ugly space monster disappeared.

Tony's heart rate returned to normal levels. Stepping forward, he studied the equation and liked what he saw. No reason to integrate it right away, he'd do a mock-up and run tests. He didn’t completely trust the alien; he was no fool, but he still pondered over her words, wanting to believe her. A threat he didn't know about no longer existed, but there might be others. There were always others, out there, waiting. He pulled up the image of Ultron and stared at it for a moment, then closed the program. What the alien had given him might prove to be more effective. He thanked the heavens for that unknown anomaly and set to work.


End file.
